The invention relates to a signal display element for the display of more than two informations for display by electromagnetically excited tilting plates, wherein in said signal display element at least two tilting plates in stable condition are arranged, supported in bearings on a baseplate and being suitable for covering the surfaces of the baseplate carrying the informations. As it is well known, signal displaying elements for the visual display of numbers, signals and symbols e.g. those described in Hungarian Patent HU-PS No. 157,250, and which are provided with tilting plates to be tilted by means of electromagnetic control and in such a manner that under influence of a tilting motion one or the other side of the plates becomes visible. The plates can also be tilted around a lateral edge or an edge running parallel with the lateral edge. The two surfaces of the tilting plates carry different informations, they are e.g. differently colored, while the part of the baseplate which became visible, carries an identical information, e.g. it has the same colour, as the visible surface of the tilting plate. The tilting plates are made, at least partly of a permanent magnetic material, the magnetic axis of which is preferably perpendicular to the plane of the tilting plates. Accordingly, by means of each signal display element two different informations can be displayed.
Furthermore an element functioning on the principle of signal display as previously described, is known, which is well suitable for displaying more than two informations, such a display is specified in Hungarian Patent HU-PS No. 158 828. In contrast to the earlier mentioned solution, in the latter case the axes of rotation of the signal display elements are not fixedly supported in bearings, but they are capable of moving when guided inside of U-shaped (hairpin) bearings, similarly, as books and covers provided with filler sheets. With this solution a plurality of tilting plates can be arranged in one element and the number of the informations to be displayed, i.e. colors, exceeds by one the number of the tilting plates.
The disadvantageous feature of that solution lies in that prior to turning, the tilting plates must be lifted in their entirety, requiring far more energy than the tilting. Functioning of the elements is uncertain, as the tilting plates tend to mesh, with their edges lying inside the bearings.